Getting To Back and Beyond

I pressed the button marked 'Publish', and suddenly Going Back is a real thing, available in electronic bookstores all over the world (including Japan, but not Australia as yet. I know there's an Australian option out there; that's next on the list)

The temptation to sit back and wait while the royalties roll in is quite strong, but I know that this is just the start of the hard work...

This morning, almost making us late for school, the nice Purolator man did indeed bring books. My books:

I need some copies to hawk around, and - I think - to give away as freebies on Goodreads.

Receiving the proof copy somehow felt more momentous, but this is actually what all this work has been leading to - holding a copy of my own book in my hand. It's very exciting, but there's no time to stop and think about it...

In a little over a week from now, you'll be able to go to your favourite online bookstore and buy a copy of Going Back. There is a part of me which wants to think back to the very beginning of this process; to think about how I got here from there, but honestly, I don't really have time. For example, while I'm updating my online presence in every way I can think of today, I'm also trying to think of ways to improve my press release, and generally coming up with nothing. Now, that may be a good thing; it's possible that it really does say everything I want to say about the book, but I can't shake the nagging feeling that there;s something else I want to put in there.

There's a reason I chose this particular post title, though - getting it in stores, and therefore potentially in the hands of readers isn't the end of this process; far from it. Getting this far is just the beginning. It's written, it's as good as I can make it; now somehow to spread the word and get people to read it. I have some thoughts on that process:

Don't give it away. I am a firm believer that people attach a value to things. If you give it away, however professional and polished it looks, your readers will value it less than if they had to pay for it. I don't mind it being shared or lent (and of course, sold second-hand when that day comes) but I don't think I should be saying "here, have a free copy"; I don't think that's the message I'm trying to get across.

Make people want to buy it. I don't really know how that's going to work. I know it's a good book; it looks like a good book; I'm happy with the blurb and the publicity package, but still.... This must be what everyone goes through, I suppose. It's just that, with no experience of doing this, I don't know if it's going to work. I do know that publicising through Facebook has caused many hundreds of complete strangers to click on the 'Like' button, but that's easy - not the same thing as buying a copy at all.

Be shameless. At least, be shameless without being egregiously shameless. I post infrequently on a handful of sites around the web. Some of them I feel comfortable blowing my own trumpet on; others I'm happy to drop subtle hints and leave it just this side of polite. Otherwise, I'm all over every social media site I can think of, hoping that my tiny brass sound can at least be detected by others out there somewhere. I think I'm doing it right; time will tell.

There's more to come this week, but for now, I'd like to leave you all with some buttons - click on them and see where they take you; it might be fun...

The Cover Reveal will happen on the Facebook page on Sunday night / Monday morning depending on where in the world you are. Go ahead and like the page if you haven't already done so; I'm now utterly shameless about plugging myself!

Publicists now on board, agreement signed, questionnaire completed, money handed over (gulp) - I had been wavering about it, but the success of my Facebook campaign (see below) has swayed me - people who have never heard of me are at least interested and intrigued enough to investigate and hit the like button - I think this might work...

I am an author. Yes, I know it's not news, but for the last week and a half I have been (only slightly ostentatiously) carrying around an actual printed copy of my book, and now - after all the toil and tears, I feel like I'm an actual, proper author. I can put the book on my shelf next to the hundreds I have up there, and it doesn't look out of place. I can show it to people and read it in public and generally behave as if it is a real thing, and it feels right; it feels like it's an actual, you know, book.

I finished proof-reading it again this morning, and I was taken aback by how I felt as I turned the last page. I was gripped by the story; reading it as if I hadn't seen it before (which, given the surgery I performed on the third part just before I sent it off to be printed, I hadn't, not properly) and I felt a little like a proud parent - there they were; my characters, beyond my influence now, ready to go off into the world on their own terms. I feel a little emotional, to be honest. It'll pass

It'll pass, because I need to get on with the hard work of getting the book in people's hands. My strategy has wavered more times than a particularly wavery thing, but I'm broadly sticking to my plan - ebook version first, which takes the brunt of the publicity effort, then print later, as appropriate. The thing is, I think I'm going to have to make the print copy available more or less from day 1 as well - it'll be really interesting to see what happens there, when I'm not pushing it particularly hard.

One more key thing needs to be done before I can start selling online, though - I need an EIN from the US Revenue Service - this is so I don't pay US tax on anything I sell there. It's apparently easy, but I spent half an hour on hold this morning before I gave up, and I don't feel particularly inclined to try again today. Maybe in the morning...

Oh, and I keep having ideas for the next book, but no time to write them down in. Ah, well; time enough for that, I suppose.

Or, actually, I've been busy behind the scenes. The Beta Reader period is done now, final (at least, I think they are final) changes have been made, and I'm now working on three fronts, none of them to do with actually writing anything.

The rather wonderful Scarlett Rugers is working on a cover design, which is under wraps for now, but I'm really excited about.

My good friend Philomena Hughes spent an hour last week patiently talking me through a photoshoot; all I have to do now is narrow down the selection of excellent pictures to three which can be used for author bios, website banners and general author pics.

And I'm talking to a publicity company, in the hope that we can find a method of promoting Going Back which sells some books without angering my bank manager more than is necessary.

All three feel like I'm moving in the right direction, but I'd still rather be writing. I'm now up to three possible concepts for new stories, and I'd like to write them too:

Shore Leave, half-written, but I know what I want to do with it now, and I'm itching to get back to it

A half-formed idea about a bookshop and coffee shop on the far fringes of Western Canada, which I'm thinking of as The Bookshop at the End of the World. I already have some characters sketched out for this, but it'll have to wait.

An even more nebulous idea, which may come to nothing - I'm letting it brew for now.

Now, if I could only get another six or seven hours in each day, I might be able to get all of this done.

With a number of developments afoot, I thought I'd take stock of the situation before going to work this morning. There are a number of beta readers in action now, some of whom have provided extremely valuable and constructive feedback. I'm in no doubt now that I have a novel, and that people will read it, given the chance.

I also (small fanfare) have hired a cover designer. There's no way I can do that part myself, and have it look anything like good enough to satisfy my own standards. So the very far away Scarlett Rugers will shortly be settling down to the impossible task of figuring out what I want the cover to look like, and making it into reality. This is somewhat momentous, because it marks the first point at which this book is no longer just the work of one person. It's a real thing, and it's really happening.

I have in my head, if not yet on paper, a marketing plan (and, fear not, Emma, I'll be hitting you up for ideas and advice!) and it goes like this:

March - final edit and proof, work up ideas on a mailing list, and social media connections

April - cover design, blurb, publicity work, about a million other things I haven't thought of yet

May: Launch electronically, with Amazon at a minimum. There's no benefit to restricting myself, so much work needs to be done on getting published through Kobo etc.

June or July - Crank up Create Space and move into the actual world of print. Why the delay? I think it needs time to see what kind of market is out there before we go the whole print hog, but I've been doing a lot of reading on this, and I think there's a decent chance, as long as I keep working at it - the worst thing I can do now is to sit back and assume that I've done the hard bit.

(We'll be in the UK in August; it would be nice to have some actual copies to hand out to those who have helped get me this far. Don't hold your breath, though...)

So, this morning, I reckoned I should curtail my beta reader list, since I need time to absorb and act on feedback, and a month is probably about as long as I can leave that. I decided I'd make two more copies available on a first come, first served basis. Then I looked at my email - a friend of my sister wants a copy: one down. I tweeted that I had one copy left to give away. Half an hour later, a complete stranger from Florida emailed me asking if I had a copy to send.

Now, no chickens are being counted here - I'm a long, long way from the finishing line - but it is possible to build an audience of people who don't know you (and who therefore have to be persuaded of the book on its own merits), and I've just seen it happen.

I'm counting that one as a sale, even if I did give it away for free...

Couldn't have done that a few years ago - modern life has its benefits.

That's the filename for the current revision, and it feels like it. I thought all along I'd get to five drafts, but I was fairly happy with where version four had got me. Feedback from my beta readers, however, has nailed a few things, particularly about Andrew's character, which make a lot of sense, so I've spent the last week working through it all again. A couple of key scenes are now quite different, but it does all hang together again. I know I need to read it all again, just to be sure, but there won't be another full draft - any more suggested changes will be made to this draft; it should all be mainly cosmetic now, I hope.

In other news, I think I'm about to get myself a professionally designed cover. I read somewhere that if you want people to invest in your book, you should be prepared to invest in it yourself, which makes sense. The cost of a cover is less than I spend on groceries every week, and if it makes the finished product stand out on the electronic shelves, then it will be worth the investment, I'm sure.

Anyone know the rules on quoting copyrighted lyrics? It's been suggested to me that a couplet or two might illustrate the point I'm making towards the end, but I fear that might prove ruinously expensive. I'll ask around...